The Female Body of Sor Juana's Subject and the Language of Gongorism in "Epinicio al Virrey Conde de Galve" (1691)

Abstract

In the Epinicio al virrey conde de Galve (1691), sor Juana Inés de la Cruz presents an overtly female speaker. Most of the composition, in a departure from the norms of the epinikion, builds the myth of this female speaker instead of praising the hero to whom the poem is dedicated. The Epinicio sings on the effects of masculine colonial power, of which the Viceroy is a synecdoche, on the female poetic persona through three figures of comparison: Semele, a raincloud, and the Sibyl. All three female figures are subjected by masculine power, and their bodies are destroyed by bearing that power’s offspring. Through an analysis of the Epinicio, this essay explores sor Juana’s understanding of the subjection of her female poetic persona in the context of epideictic poetry, and what the Epinicio has to say about Gongorism as a language for the poetic subject.